I am currently a college student with little capitol and I am on the same path as you were, working door dash, delivery driver, anything that I can get my hands on.

Our 3 options are: A- buy cheap housing in small college town.

In this scenario, it would be foolish to save up 20-25% down on a cheap investment property on a DSCR loan.

The location is not one of the good areas (64130) so it is relatively cheap.

One thing that would be cheap is to see if HCD would take a stance that jurisdiction’s interpretation is incorrect.  

If nothing else, I think NREIG is willing to insure just about anything, although it won't necessarily be cheap. 

Buy a cheap house in a tough area, the numbers on paper may look good, but you will have higher operating costs and more headaches (generally speaking) as opposed to buying a solid house in a good area.

Sam, in my experience the little details like this help vacancy rates and increase the monthly rent. bathroom: Toilets are cheap and are easy to install.

There are limit's to how cheap good get's. 

You’ll also need to determine your project delivery method (design-bid-build, design-build, etc).